Eight Major Cuisines of China

Shandong Cuisine

Genre: composed by the local dish style of Jinan and Jiaodong.

Characteristics: thick taste, prefers scallion and garlic. Special in cooking seafood, soup with meat inside.

Famous dish: Fried Shrimp, Fried Conch, Sweet and Crispy Carp.

Sichuan Cuisine

Genre: divided into Chengdu and Chongqing genre.

Characteristics: famous for rich, broad, thick and deep taste.

Famous dish: Kung Bo Chicken, Top Class Bare Palm, Fish Flavor Pork Shreds, Dry Fried Shark's Fin, Fried Spicy Crabs.

Jiangsu Cuisine

Genre: developed from Yangzhou, Suzhou and Nanjing local dishes.

Characteristics: well known for braising, stewing and roasting. Pay attention to soup and savour the original sauce.

Famous dish: Dried Tofu Shreds Boiled in Chicken Broth, Crystal Hoofs, Braised Crab Meat Balls.


Zhejiang Cuisine

Genre: composed by Hangzhou, Ningbo and Shaoxing local dishes. And the most famous one is Hangzhou dish.

Characteristics: Fresh, tender, soft, smooth, fragrant and not greasy.

Famous dish: Dragon Well Shelled Shrimps, Beggar's Chicken, West Lake Vinegar Fish.


Canton Cuisine

Genre: Divided into 3 sub genres, Guangzhou, Chaozhou and Dongjiang dishes, represented by the Guangzhou dish.

Characteristics: Outstanding sautéing, deep frying, braising, boiling. Taste is featured by clearness, lightness, crispiness and freshness.

Famous dish: Gathering of Dragon, Tiger and Phoenix. Roast Suckling Pig, Winter Melon Cup and Sweet and Sour Pork.

Hunan Cuisine

Genre: Pay attention to the various kinds of spices: fragrant, numbing, regular, burning numb and fresh. And the most popular taste is sour and spicy.

Famous dish: Rock Sugar with Lotus, Braised Shark's Fin.


Fujian Cuisine

Genre: Developed from Fuzhou, Quanzhou and Xiamen dishes. Represented by the Fuzhou dish.

Characteristics: Seafood is the main ingredient. Pay attention to sweetness, sourness, saltiness and fragrance. Beautiful color combines with delicious taste.

Famous dish: Snowflake Chicken, Jiaji Fish in Orange Sauce, Taiji Shrimps and Dry Fried Fish.


Anhui Cuisine

Genre: Made of the local cuisines of southern Anhui and Huai River range. Represented by the southern Anhui dish.

Characteristics: Ham is often the main ingredient and accompanies rock sugar. Famous for roasting and braising. Focus on heat control.

Famous dish: Gourd Duck, Fuliji Roast Chicken.

Current Situation of Chinese Population

China has the largest population of any country in the world. According to 2002 statistics, the total population of China is 1.28453 billion (excluding Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan) or about one fifth of the world population. China also has a very dense population, with approximately 135 people per square kilometer.

The population in China is not evenly distributed. Most people reside in the east than in the west. The east coast area is densely populated with more than 400 people living on an area of one square kilometer, while the plateau west is sparsely populated with a per-kilometer population of 10. The average density in the central area is 200 people per square kilometer.

The average life expectancy of a Chinese person has been increased to 71.40 years (69.63 for males and 73.33 for females).  This life expectancy is five years longer than the world average, and 7 years longer than other developing countries and regions. 

By the end of 2002, the total mainland population of China is 1.28 billion. Among them, some 500 million live in the city, accounting for 39.1% of the total.  About 780 million are country dwellers, accounting for 60.9%. 661 million are males while 623 million are females. People aged from zero to fourteen account for 22.4% of the total population; 15-64 account for 70.3%; and 65 and over account for 7.3% of the total population. The yearly birth rate is 12.86%, with 16.5 million babies born each year. The death rate is 6.41%, with yearly deaths of 8.21 million. The annual net increase of the population is 8.26 million, a year-on-year increase of 6.45%.

Chinese Territory

China, (People's Republic of China), is situated in eastern Asia. It is bounded by the Pacific Ocean in the east and has an area of 9.6 million square kilometers. It is the third largest country in the world, next to Canada and Russia.

China's borders begin about midstream along the Heilong River north of Mohe (53 degrees and 31 minutes north latitude) to the southernmost island Zengmu'ansha in the South China Sea (4 degrees ), about 5,500 kilometers (more than 49 degrees latitude) apart ,from the confluence of the Heilong and Wusuli rivers (135 degrees and 5 minutes east longitude) in the east; to the Pamirs (73 degrees and 40 minutes east longitude) in the west, about 5,000 kilometers (more than 60 degrees longitude) apart.

The border stretches over 22,800 kilometers. It reaches west to South Korea and south to Mongolia, southwest to Russia and southeast to Kazakhstan, Krygyzstan, Tajikistan. China also borders Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bhutan in west and northwest and Burma, Laos, Vietnam in the south.

China's Wind, Hydro, and Solar Energy

Rivers are numerous in China's large territory. There is plenty of surface flow and incline. That means abundant hydroelectric resources. The reserves of hydroelectricity in Chinese rivers are 6,800 million kilowatts. That would generate 5,920 billion kilowatt hours annually. The potential installed capacity of hydroelectricity is 378 million kilowatts, which would generate 1,920 billion kilowatt hours. Either way, the reserves of hydroelectricity, or potential hydroelectricity in China are the biggest in the world.

The total reserves of wind energy at a height of 10 meters in China are 322,600 million kilowatts. Estimated land wind energy reserves are 253 million kilowatts. Wind-force resources in the coastal waters (deeper than 15 meters) are 3 times that of the land, namely 7,500 million kilowatts. China's wind energy area comes from the northwest, north China, grasslands or the Gobi desert and eastern and southeastern coastal areas and islands. These areas generally have no regular resource production. The winds tend to be heavy and rainfall is minimal in spring and winter. In summer, by contrast, the wind is less, and the rainfall is heavy. These are ideal conditions for developing wind-powered electricity.

At the end of 1998, China had nearly 20 electric wind fields, generating 22,360,000 kilowatts. The largest electricity generation field in China, which is also the largest in Asia, is the Banchang wind-power electricity generation field of Xingjiang. It's equipped with 111 wind-powered electricity groups of 300, 500 and 600 kilowatts. The total capacity is 57,500 kilowatts. At present, the installed capacity of Chinese wind-powered electricity only accounts for one quarter of the potential capacity.

China's solar energy resources are abundant. The solar radiation energy that the land absorbs every year is equivalent to 2.4 trillion tons of standard coal. The annual radiation amount of solar energy of just two thirds of this area exceeds 6,000 trillion joules for each square meter and is up to 8,400 trillion joules for each square meter in the northwestern part of Tibet. It is one of the most abundant areas in the world for solar energy resources. The first solar energy power station in China was built in Inner Mongolia. It generates 560 watts and was put into operation in 1982.

China's Topography

China is a mountainous country. The mountains, upland and plateau cover two thirds of the total area. The variety of landscape includes the high hills (33%), the plateau (26%), the basin (19%) and the plain (12%).

The Tibetan Plateau was gradually formed millions of years ago. The crust movement of the earth in that area formed the beginning of the current Chinese landscape. The surface of China is like several stages. It slopes down in steps from west to east. The Indian Ocean Plate and Eurasian Plate have forced the constant rising of Tibetan Plateau, which now averages about 4,000 meters above sea level. The "roof of the world" eventually became the first phase in China's topography. The Himalayan Mountains are also found in this region. With a height of 8,848 meters, Mount Everest, the peak of the Himalayas, is also the highest peak in the world. The second stage consists of Inner Mongolia, Huangtu, Yungui Plateau, Tarim, Jungar and Sichuan Basin. This region has an average height of 1,000 to 2,000 meters above sea level. Across the east edge of the second stage, the area of the Daxing'an Range, Taihang Mountain, Wu Mountain and Xuefeng Mountain lie straight east to the Pacific Ocean. This area is regarded as the third stage and ranges from 500 to 1,000 meters above sea level. It runs from north to south covering the Northeast Plain, North China Plains and middle and low reaches of the Yangtze River. On the edge of the plain are low mountains and uplands. To the east, there is the Chinese continental shelf, a shallow sea area known as the fourth stage. The water here is generally less than 200 meters deep.

China's Soil Resource

China's land is vast and varied. There are large areas of cultivated land, forests, meadows, deserts and mud flats. However, there are more mountainous regions of China than plains and, because of this, the proportions of cultivated land and forests are small. Many land resources are unevenly distributed. The cultivated land is centered mainly in the plains of the eastern monsoon district and basin area. The forests are centered more in the northeastern and southwestern outlying mountain areas. The meadows are distributed in the landlocked plateau.

Cultivated land: There are 1,270,000 square kilometers of cultivated land in China. It is divided into the east, central and west regions. The cultivated land is concentrated on the northeastern plain, the north China plain, Yangtze River, Zhujiang River Delta and Sichuan Basin. The northeastern plain has rich, black soil and produces mostly wheat, corn, sorghum, soybeans, flax and beets. The north China plain is mostly brown soil. Crops there contain wheat, corn, grain, sorghum, cotton and peanuts. The midstream, downstream and plain areas of the Changjiang River produce rice, mandarin oranges and flax. Sichuan Basin abounds with rice, flax, sugarcane, tea, mandarin oranges and shaddock.

China's forested areas total 158,940,000 hectares. The country's forest coverage rate is 16.5 per cent - much lower than the average forest coverage rate of 30.8 per cent for the rest of the world. China's wildwood is densely distributed mostly in the northeast and southwest. The eastern plains have much less forest.

China has many varieties of trees. There are more than 2,800 kinds of arbors and rare types of ginkgo and metasequoia. China has launched an extensive reforestation campaign in order to protect the environment and meet the demands of economic development. China has the largest area of artificial forest in the world. It currently measures 33,790,000 hectares.

China has several forest zones. The northeast zone is the largest natural forest zone of China and includes the Daxing'an mountain range, the Xing'an Mountains and the ground region of the Changbai Mountains. The southwest forest zone includes the Hengduan Mountain area, the Himalayan foothills and Brahmaputra. The southwest zone is the second largest natural forest zone in China. The southeast forest zone includes the south region of the Qinling Mountains - the first line of Huaihe River and the mountain area of vast hills to the east of the plateau of Yunnan-Guizhou. This is the main artificial forest zone of China. In addition, there are widespread shelterbelt networks in China. They are in the Chinese northeast, north China and the northwest. The total length of these networks is more than 7,000 kilometers. They cover 600,000,000 million hectares and account for one-quarter of the area of Chinese land. They are referred to as the biggest ecological project in the world.

China's grasslands are some of the largest in the world and cover 266,060,000 hectares. Various types of meadows account for one-quarter of China's landmass. They help sustain livestock in different seasons. The natural meadow of China is distributed in the areas of the north Daxing'an Mountain range, to the west of the Yinshan Mountains and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau east foothills. The artificially sown pastures are designed to mesh with the cultivated land. The pastures of Inner Mongolia are the largest is the world and support many domestic animals including horses and oxen. The Xinjiang pastures support different types of sheep and plow horses. The yak is the most common animal found in the pastures of Qinghai and Tibet.

China's Rivers

There are several gorgeous and scenic rivers in China. The rivers fall into two categories: inflow and outflow. The Yangzte, Yellow, Heilongjiang, Zhu Jiang, Liaohe, Haihe, and Huaihe flow into the Pacific Ocean eastwards. The Brahmaputra River in Tibet, which is 104.6 kilometers long, flows southwards into the Indian Ocean. China also has the Brahmaputra Grand Canyon, the deepest Grand Canyon in the world at 6009 meters. The Xinjiang River flows into the Arctic Ocean northward, resulting in landlocked lakes or the creation of desert.

The Yangtze River is the longest river in China at 6300 km long. It is the third longest river in the world behind the Amazon and the Nile. The headwaters of the Yangtze are situated at an elevation of about 16,000 feet in the Kunlun Mountains in the southwestern section of Qinghai. It also has enormous and inexhaustible hydroelectric resources known as a golden water course.

The Yellow River is the second longest river in China at 5464 kilometers. The Yellow River Basin is lush and the mineral deposit abundant. It is the cradle of the ancient Chinese civilization.

Heilongjiang River is 4350 kilometers long, of which 3101 kilometers flow through the border of China.

The Zhu Jiang River is in southern China. It is 2214 kilometers long.

The river of Tarim in southern Xinjiang is the longest inland river in China, totaling 2179 kilometers in length.

Besides the natural rivers, there is a famous artificial river in China: the Jinghang Canal. It was created in the 5th century and runs from Beijing in the north to Hanzhou in the south. It links up with five major river systems including the Haihe, Yellow, Huaihe, Changjiang, and Qiantang. Its total length is 1801 kilometers and is the longest artificial river in the world.

China's Provincial Level Administrative Units

China is currently administered by the central government in Beijing.  The country has been divided into regions consisting of 34 administrative units including 23 provinces, 5 autonomous regions, 4 municipalities directly under the jurisdiction of the central government, and 2 special administrative regions. 

The four municipalities are:

Beijing

Beijing is the capital of the People's Republic of China (P.R.C.) and its abbreviation is Jing. It is positioned at the north end of the North China Plain. Its original name is Ji and was the capital city of the Yan Kingdom in the Spring, Autumn, and Warring States Periods. The Liao Dynasty selected it as the auxiliary capital with the name of Yanjing. The following dynasties of Jin, Yuan, Ming, Qing, and even the Ex-Republic of China selected it as the capital. The city has also been known as Zhongdu, Dadu, Beiping, and Beijing successively. Beijing city was established in 1928. It has 16 subordinate districts and 2 counties and is administered directly by the central government. Beijing occupies a total area of 16,800 square kilometers and has a registered permanent residence of over 11 million people (2002 census). Beijing is the political, cultural, scientific, and educational center of China.  It also serves as the transportation hub for the entire country.  Beijing is also popular with tourists, boasting cultural relics like the Great Wall, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Ming Tombs, Summer Palace, and the Fragrant Hills.

Shanghai

Shanghai's abbreviation is Hu.  It is located in the middle of the east coast beside the estuary of the Yangtze River.  The ancient Shanghai is a fishing village by the shore. In the Spring and Autumn Periods, this region belonged to the Wu Kingdom. During the Warring States Periods, Sir Chun Shen of Chu Kingdom was in possession of Shanghai as fief. In the Song Dynasty, Shanghai was established as a town, and was given the name of "Shanghai". In 1927, Shanghai became a city. Today, Shanghai is one of the 4 municipalities in China and has 18 subordinate districts and 1 county. Shanghai occupies a total area of 5,800 square kilometers. By the end of 2002, Shanghai has a registered permanent residence of 13,347,000. Shanghai is the largest city in China and one of the largest in the world.  Shanghai is the business, finance, industrial, and scientific center of China. 

Tianjin

The abbreviation for Tianjin is Jin. It is located in the northeastern part of the North China Plains, where five branches of the Hai River intersect and merge with the Bohai Sea. Tianjin, which was called Zhigu in Jin during the Yuan Dynasties, has been the traffic link of the canal. During the Ming Dynasty the government changed its name to Tianjin, meaning "emperor's ferry", and built a castle there. In the Qing Dynasty, Tianjin became a castellan area and formally became a city in 1928. Today, Tianjin has 15 subordinate districts and 3 counties.  It is one of the 4 municipalities and covers a total area of 11,000 square kilometers.   According to 2002 statistics, Tianjin has a registered permanent residence of 9,195,000. Tianjin is largest industrial city in the North China Plains and has rich stores of oil, gas, and sea salt. Tianjin is also an important business center and port city of North China. Tianjin also is home to many relics, including the Ning Garden, Tianhou Palace, Dagukou Emplacement, Dule Temple of Ji County, Ancient Great Wall on Huangya Pass, and the Beauty Spot of Panshan Mountain, which is regarded as "The First Mountain to the east of Beijing".

Chongqing

The abbreviation for Chongqing is Yu. It is located in southwestern China up to the Yangtze River. Chongqing belonged to the Ba Kingdom in the Spring, Autumn and Warring States Periods. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties it belonged to Yuzhou. The Ex-Republic of China selected it as the auxiliary capital in the era of the Asia-Pacific War. In 1997, the municipality of Chongqing was founded. It consists of Chongqing city, Wanxian city, Fuling city and Qianjiang area. Chongqing municipality has 15 subordinate districts, 3 county cities, 17 counties, and 4 autonomous counties. Chongqing occupies a total area of 82,300 square kilometers. By the end of 2002, Chongqing has a registered permanent residence of 31,070,000. The municipality is an integrated industrial city, and has various tourist destinations such as the three gorges of Yangtze River, Pipa Mountain and Jinyun Mountain.

The 23 provinces are:

The 5 autonomous regions are:

The two special administrative regions are:

Hong Kong

The P.R.C. regained governance over Hong Kong in July 1, 1997 and established the city as a special administrative region.  The abbreviation for Hong Kong is Gang.  The city is located along the coastline of the South China Sea on the east of the Zhujiang River and south of Shenzhen in Guangdong province. It includes the island of Kowloon, New Territories, and other islands nearby. Hong Kong occupies a total area of 1,098.51 square kilometers. As of 2002, Hong Kong had a population of